U.S. auto parts group MEMA urges passage of North American trade deal

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FILE PHOTO: The flags of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are seen on a lectern before a joint news conference on the closing of the seventh round of NAFTA talks in Mexico City, Mexico March 5, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, a major U.S. auto parts industry group, threw its weight behind U.S. President Donald Trump’s rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Thursday, urging Congress to approve the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) “without delay.”

MEMA, whose members employ about 871,000 workers - the most of any U.S. manufacturing sector - had previously not endorsed USMCA, a deal reached last year that significantly increases U.S. and North American value content for vehicles produced in the trade zone.